Support system for a food waste disposer



Nov. 29, 1966 F. J. CLEMENTS ETAL 3,233,380

SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A FOOD WASTE DISPOSER Filed April 30, 1964 INVENTORS' FRAN IS I CLEMEMTS &: IOHNNY W YARTZ gawk 5 6 THEIR ATT RNEY United States Patent Ofitice 3,288,380 Patented Nov. 29, 196% 3,288,380 SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR A FUOD WASTE DISPGSER Francis J. Clements and Johnny W. Yartz, Anchorage,

Ky., assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Apr. 30, 1964, Ser. No. 363,842 4 Claims. (Cl. 241-1005) This invention relates generally to food waste disposers and, more particularly, to an improved means to support a food waste disposer from a sink such that the disposer is secured against undesirable rotation relative to its support.

Food waste disposers are most commonly supported from, and in communication with, the drain opening of a kitchen sink which opening serves as an ingress opening for the admission of the waste material and water to the comminuting apparatus. As a result, the disposer itself is most often positioned in a relatively inaccessible location, viz., within the cabinet below the sink. In the past this made the installation and removal of the disposer an awkward chore, especially if the disposer was a relatively heavy one. It often required the efforts of two workmen to properly install or remove a disposer from its location beneath the kitchen sink. In US. Patent 3,108,755, issued to us on October 29, 1963 and assigned to the General Electric Company, assigneeof the present invention, we describe and claim a support system for a food waste disposer which overcomes the aforementioned problems and which allows a single workman to install or remove a food waste disposer with relative ease. Although the present invention has broader application, it is particularly suitable for use with the arrangement disclosed in the aforementioned US. Patent 3,108,755.

While installing the food waste disposer beneath the sink, it is necessary to make plumbing connections to the disposer. For example, it is necessary to connect the disposer outlet to the household sewer system so that the comminuted food waste may. be carried away. It is not only desirable but imperative that the connecting means on the food waste disposer be brought into relatively accurate alignment with the plumbing to which it is to be connected so that no excessive strain be impressed upon either the plumbing or the disposer once the connection is made. This requires that the disposer be adjustable, to at least a limited extent, relative to its support so that it may be properly oriented without necessitating movement of the kitchen sink. At the same time, however, it would be desirable that once the disposer has been properly oriented, it be secured against subsequent undesirable movement during operation which also would impress strain upon the plumbing.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved means to support a food waste disposer from a sink.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved support means which easily allows a single workman to install or remove a food waste disposer.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved means which affords quick installation or removal of a food waste disposer with respect to the sink.

It is another object of this invention to provide support means for a food waste disposer which will allow movement of the disposer relative to its associated plumbing during installation but which will prevent undesirable movementof the disposer durin operation thereof.

Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system to support a food waste disposer below a sink wherein the disposer includesa housing having therein an opening to be connected to external plumbing. Means are provided to support the housing below the sink such that the housing may be rotated at least a few degrees about a substantially vertical axis to bring the opening into registry with the external plumbing. The means supporting the housing has at least one tab projecting therefrom and the disposer housing has a plurality of angularly spaced catches adapted to engage the tab upon rotation of the disposer housing relative to the support means. The tab and catches are arranged so that the tab will interfere with the catches in one direction of rotation of the dis poser housing to thereby prevent said rotation. The tab and catches are further arranged so that the catches will freely allow the tab to pass in the opposite direction of rotation of the disposer housing. The direction of rotation of the housing whereby the tab interferes with the catches to prevent rotation is the direction of rotation of the rotary comminuting means within the disposer when the disposer is operating. With this arrangement, the disposer may be positioned below the sink so that the weight of the disposer is placed upon the support means and the disposer may then be rotated to bring the opening in the disposer housing into registry with the plumbing to which the opening is connected. Once the disposer housing has been properly oriented, subsequent operations of the comminuting means within the disposer, including possible jamming of the comminuting assembly, will not rotate the disposer since the tab will interfere with the catches. In this manner stress upon the plumbing or the connection between the plumbing and the disposer is prevented.

While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which is regarded as the invention, it is believed the invention will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial elevational view partially cut away to show details of a food waste disposer employing the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a partial sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken along line 33 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the support means of the present invention showing details thereof.

Referring to the drawing, and particularly to FIG- URE 1, there is illustrated a food waste disposer 10 including an upper housing 11 defining a comminuting chamber 12 and a lower housing 13. The comminution of waste material takes place near the bottom of comminuting chamber 12 and any suitable comminuting means may be used to effect the comminuting operation. For example, the comminuting means may be used which is described and claimed in US. Patent No. 2,828,083 issued March 25, 1958 to H. J. Macemon, and assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention. Briefly, the comminuting means comprises a stationary shredding ring 14 which is provided with cutting surfaces 15 and with a plurality of apertures 16. Co-acting with the shredding ring 14 is a material impelling flywheel 17 which is provided with a pair of impellers 18 arranged, upon rotation of the flywheel, to impel the waste material against the shredding ring 14 to comminute the material into a fine mass. It will be understood that during the operation water will be caused to flow down through the comminuting chamber 12, and that eventually the water and the comminuted material constituting a flowable mass will be discharged through the apertures 16 into a drain chamber 19 which communicates, by means of outlet opening 20, with a drain leading to the sewer system of the house. The flywheel 17 is driven by a suitable electric motor 21.

The upper end of housing 11 includes an opening through which the waste material and the water is supplied to the comminuting chamber 12 from a drain opening 22 provided in the household sink, the bottom wall of the sink being designated by the numeral 23. Means for supporting the disposer from the wall 23, as best shown in FIGURE 2, comprises a cylindrical tubular sleeve 24 which is arranged to be inserted down through the drain opening 22 and at its upper end is provided with an outwardly extending annular flange 25 adapted to overlie an annular marginal edge 26 of the drain opening 22. Preferably, and as shown in the drawing, the marginal edge 26 is slightly depressed from the bottom wall 23. The lower end of the sleeve 24 is provided with an inturned flange 27 which is adapted to support a splash guard 28. The splash guard 28 is, in turn, adapted to support a suitable sink stopper 29.

The sleeve 24 not only functions to conduct the waste material and water into comminuting chamber 12 but also constitutes a support means for the disposer 10. For the purpose of supporting the disposer, sleeve 24 is rigidly secured to the bottom wall 23 of the sink. This is accomplished by a support ring 30 which encircles the sleeve 24 and cooperates with a snap ring 31. The snap ring 31 nests in an annular recess 32 in sleeve 24. The inner peripheral portion 33 of the support ring 30 is shaped to seat upon snap ring 31 so that as supporting ring 30 tends to move downwardly, it engages snap ring 31 such that it prevents snap ring 31 from expanding while at the same time, snap ring 31 prevents downward movement of the support ring 30. Support ring 30 is provided with a plurality of spaced threaded openings each of which receive a bolt 34. Bolts 34 function to clamp the flange 25 to the marginal edge 26 of the sink by means of a clamping ring 35 encircling the sleeve, it being understood that when the bolts 34 are screwed upwardly they will sandwich the marginal edge 26 between the flange 25 on the sleeve and the clamping ring 35. Preferably a ring gasket 36 encircling the sleeve 24 will be inserted between the bottom of the sink and the clamping ring 35.

In addition to rigidly securing the sleeve 24 t the sink, the support ring 30 also serves to attach housing 11 to the sleeve 24. To accomplish this, a plurality of slot patterns, each including an inner slot 37 and an outer slot 38, are conveniently spaced from the circumference of the support ring 30. Each of these slot patterns receives a clip 39. The clips 39 can best be described as generally S-shaped and each includes a resilient central portion 40 and a bent over upper portion 41. The upper portion 41 is provided with a pair of tabs 42 which engage the bottom surface of support ring 30 to resiliently secure clip 39 to the support ring 30. The resilient central portion 40 terminates with an upwardly turned free end 43.

Surrounding the upper portion of housing 11 is a gasket 44 which is provided with a surface 45 adapted to rest upon the free ends 43 of clips 39 when the disposer is in its normal installed position as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2. It will be observed that gasket 44 engages the outer surface of the sleeve 24 to provide a liquid tight seal between housing 11 and the sleeve 24. For the purpose of providing an effective seal, and for the further purpose of minimizing transfer of vibration from housing 11 to the bottom wall 23 of the sink, the gasket 44 is preferably constructed from a relatively resilient material. A clamping band 46 encircles the lower portion of gasket 44 and is preferably of a length sufficient to extend below the surface 45 of gasket 44 to provide a means of assuring that clips 39 are prevented from flexing outwardly beyond surface 45 when the disposer is in its installed position.

With the above-described structure, installation of the food waste disposer is accomplished as follows. The sleeve 24 is inserted into the drain opening 22 from above until flange 25 engages marginal edge 26. Ring gasket 36 and clamping ring 35 are then slipped over the sleeve 24 from below. Support ring 30, with clips 39 attached thereto, is also slipped over sleeve 24 to a level above the annular recess 32. Snap ring 31 is then snapped into the recess 32 which loosely secures the support ring 30, clamping ring 35 and ring gasket 36 from slipping off sleeve 24. Bolts 34 are then screwed up through support ring 30 into engagement with clamping ring 35 to the extent that the assembly is rigidly secured to the bottom wall 23 of the sink. At this time, the food waste disposer, having gasket 44 and clamping band 46 attached thereto, is brought into alignment with the sleeve 24 from below. The disposer is then raised vertically until the upper portion of the gasket 44 comes into contact with the free end 43 of the clips 39. As the disposer and the gasket 44 are raised further, the clips 39 are biased outwardly and then downwardly beyond the bottom extremity of the clamping band 46 whereupon they snap radially inwardly to become positioned directly below surface 45 of gasket 44. When this has been achieved, the disposer is moved vertically downwardly until surface 45 rests upon free ends 43 of clips 39. At this point, food waste disposer 10 is in its normal installed position with regard to vertical relationship with the sink. If outlet opening 20 has been maintained in proper alignment with the plumbing to which it is to be connected during vertical movement of disposer 10, installation of disposer 10 is substantially completed. However, it is not always convenient to maintain outlet opening 20 in proper alignment with the external plumbing during the aforementioned manipulations of disposer 10 and therefore it is usually necessary to rotate disposer 10 a few degrees about its axis to bring opening 20 into registry with the external plumbing.

Of course, the aforementioned structure, as disclosed in US. Patent 3,108,755, allows for the necessary rotary movement of the disposer 10 to bring opening 20 into registry with the external plumbing to which the opening is to be connected. This is permitted by the fact that the engagement between gasket 44 and the outer surface of sleeve 24 is a friction fit and, although the joint between gasket 44 and sleeve 24 is substantially liquid tight, relative rotary movement between disposer 10 and sleeve 24 may be accomplished by a firm rotary force applied to disposer 10.

Substantially all of the foregoing structure is described and claimed in the aforementioned US. Patent 3,108,755 and therefore forms no significant part of the present invention other than the present invention is an improvement which may be employed with the foregoing structure.

In accordance with the present invention, means are provided which still allows the aforementioned limited relative rotary movement between disposer 10 and sleeve 24 but further provides means to prevent rotary movement of the disposer relative to the sleeve 24 due to jamming and shock loading of the comminuting assembly within the disposer.

To provide a clearer understanding of one type of rotary movement which the present invention prevents, reference is made to FIGURE 1 and particularly to flywheel 17 illustrated in FIGURE 1. During operation of the disposer, flywheel 17 rotates in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from the top. Impellers 18 rotate with flywheel 17 and effect a comminuting action of food waste within chamber 12 by cooperating with cutting surfaces 15. When certain materials are being comminuted such as for example bones, it is possible for the material to work its way into a position relative to impeller 18 and cutting surface 15 such that jamming occurs. Under certain conditions, the jamming may be sufficient to completely stop rotation of flywheel 17. Frequent shock loads may be applied to flywheel 17 due to temporary lodgment of bones or similarly hard articles between impeller 18 and cutting surface 15. These shock loads and jamming conditions tend to transmit the rotary movement of flywheel 17 to the housing of disposer 10. It means are not provided to prevent this rotation, disposer will rotate relative to sleeve 24. Since an external plumbing connection has been made to opening 20, continued rotation of disposer 10 relative to sleeve 24 will apply a stress upon the external plumbing and upon the connection between disposer 10 and the external plumbing. The present invention is particularly adapted to overcome this problem.

In accordance with what is presently considered to be the best mode of carrying out the instant invention, each of the clips 39 is provided with a tab 47 lanced out from the central portion 40. Tab 47 projects outwardly from central portion 40 on the side which faces clamping band 46 when disposer 10 is installed as shown in FIGURE 1. Groups of catches are provided on the outer surface of clamping band 46. As shown in FIGURE 3, there are four groups 48, 49, 50 and 51 of catches with each group positioned adjacent a clip 39. The catches, as most clearly shown in FIGURE 3, are all configurated so that clamping band 46, and disposer 10 which is secured thereto may be rotated relative to clips 39 in one direction of rotation but not in the opposite direction of rotation. It is to be understood, as mentioned earlier, that the central portion 40 of clip 39 is resilient which will thereby allow clip 39 to flex outwardly as the catches pass by the tabs 47 in the one direction of rotation.

Groups 48 and 50 are diametrically opposed from each other while groups 49 and 51 are diametrically opposed to each other. It has been found in practice that a convenient spacing for the individual catches in any group is approximately 5". That is, in any given group a catch is angularly spaced 5 from the catch adjacent thereto. Careful scrutiny of FIGURE 3 will reveal that groups 48 and 5b are not exactly spaced 90 from groups 49 and 51. As shown in FIGURE 3, tabs 47 are in contact with a catch in each of groups 48 and 50 while tabs 47 are intermediate the catches of groups 49 and 51. It has been found in practice desirable to off-set groups 48 and 50 from groups 49 and 51 by 2 /2 from the cardinal 90 spacing. This olf-set, of course, provides a stepped arrangement whereby groups 48 and 50 will be in engagement with tabs 47 at one position of disposer 10 and groups 49 and 51 will be in engagement with tabs 47 when the disposer is rotated 2 /2 from the previous position.

It should be appreciated, that the configuration of the catches is such to prevent rotation of disposer 10 when the above-mentioned jamming or shock loading of flywheel 17 occurs. At the same time, the arrangement allows disposer 10 to be rotated in the opposite direction at least several degrees during installation of the disposer to bring opening 20 into registry with external plumbing.

In the preferred form of the present invention, tabs 42, which serve to secure clip .39 to support ring 30, provide limited flexibility so that during operation of the disposer 10 when a shock load occurs, the catches do not tend to bounce after contact with tabs 47. If this flexibility were not present it is possible, under extreme shocks, for the catches to bounce back and actually result in the disposer rotating one notch in the direction opposite to the shock load.

As will be evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects of the invention are not limited to the particular details of construction of the example illustrated and it is contemplated that various other modifications or applications will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, it would be possible to provide other means depending from, or connected to, support ring 30 to cooperate with the catches in the manner that tabs 47 cooperate therewith. It is therefore intended that the appended claims shall cover such modifications and applications as do not depart from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A system to support a food waste disposer below a sink comprising:

(a) a housing forming a part of the food waste disposer and having therein an opening to be connected to external plumbing,

(b) means supporting said housing below the sink whereby said housing may be rotated at least a few degrees about a substantially vertical axis to bring said opening into registry with the external plumbing,

(c) said means having at least one projection projecting towards said housing,

(d) said housing having a member adapted to engage said projection,

(e) said projection and said member cooperating to prevent rotation of said housing in one direction and allow rotation in the opposite direction.

2. A system to support below a sink a food waste disposer having a housing with an opening therein to be connected to external plumbing comprising:

(a) means supported by said sink including a plurality of depending clips,

(b) means on the disposer housing adapted to engage said clips so that the housing is substantially secured against vertical movement,

(c) said engagement between said clips and said means on the disposer housing allowing at least limited rotary movement about a vertical axis,

(d) at least one of said clips having a tab,

(e) said means on the disposer housing having a plurality of angularly spaced catches adapted to engage said tab and thereby limit rotation of the housing in one direction.

3. In a system for supporting a food waste disposer below a sink, said disposer having a rotary comminuting means, said system including support means depending from said sink to secure said disposer against vertical movement but adapted to allow at least limited rotary movement about a substantially vertical axis, said disposer including a housing having an opening therein to be connected to external plumbing, an improvement to allow alignment of said opening with said plumbing during installation of said disposer but to prevent subsequent rotary movement of said housing to thereby minimize stress on the connection between said opening and said plumbing comprising:

(a) at least one tab projecting from the support means,

(b) a plurality of angularly spaced catches on the disposer housing adapted to engage said tab upon rotation of the disposer housing relative to the support means,

(c) said tab and said catches being arranged so that said tab will interfere with said catches in a first direction of rotation of the disposer housing to thereby prevent rotation,

((1) said tab and said catches further being arranged so that said catches will freely pass said tab in a second direction of rotation of the disposer housing.

4. The improvement defined in claim 3 wherein said second direction of rotation of the disposer housing is the direction of rotation of the rotary comminuting means of the disposer when the disposer is operating.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,965,319 12/1960 Hyde 24l100.5 3,025,007 3/1962 Wieczorek 241100.5 3,198,443 8/1965 Guth 241100.5 3,246,132 4/1966 Jordan 24l100.5 X

ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner.

HARRY F. PEPPER, JR., Examiner. 

1. A SYSTEM TO SUPPORT A FOOD WASTE DISPOSER BELOW A SINK COMPRISING: (A) A HOUSING FORMING A PART OF THE FOOD WASTE DISPOSER AND HAVING THEREIN AN OPENING TO BE CONNECTED TO EXTERNAL PLUMBING, (B) MEANS SUPPORTING SAID HOUSING BELOW THE SINK WHEREBY SAID HOUSING MAY BE ROTATED AT LEAST A FEW DEGREES ABOUT A SUBSTANTIALLY VERTICAL AXIS TO BRING SAID OPENING INTO REGISTRY WITH THE EXTERNAL PLUMBING, (C) SAID MEANS HAVING AT LEAST ONE PROJECTION PROJECTING TOWARDS SAID HOUSING, (D) SAID HOUSING HAVING A MEMBER ADAPTED TO ENGAGE SAID PROJECTION, (E) SAID PROJECTION AND SAID MEMBER COOPERATING TO PREVENT ROTATION OF SAID HOUSING IN ONE DIRECTION AND ALLOW ROTATION IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. 